Based on your discussions, you will be completing a SIFT analysis of your short story. SIFT stands for symbolism, imagery, figurative language, tone and theme. Using this SIFT method of analyis, you can "sift" through the parts in order to comprehend the whole. Cute, huh?
Symbol: Examine the title and text of the story for symbolism
Imagery: Identify imagery and sensory detail.
Figurative Language:Analyze figures of speech (personification, metaphors, etc.)
Tone and Theme: Discuss how all devices reveal tone and theme.
In order to complete this in-class assignment, you should download and review the first two documents below. The third download is your SIFT sheet, which should be completed and dropboxxed at the end of class today.
1 -- The SIFT Method of Literary Analysis
2 -- How to Write About Theme
3 -- SIFT worksheet (use this to complete the assignment)
PART TWO
The second part of this project -- and this is for homework -- involves an LRJ assignment and a group presentation on Wednesday.
Group Presentation on Wednesday
Each group qill give a ten-minute presentation on the assigned short story. This presentation must be given by all members of the group and include:
1. a brief synopsis of the story
2. a brief discussion symbols and how they reveal meaning in the story.
3. a brief discussion imagery and how the imagery reveals meaning in the story.
4. a brief discussion of significant figurative language, including recurring motifs, that contribute to the overall meaning of the story
5. a discussion of the tone and one or two themes your group identified.
6. an identification of aspects of the story that are ambiguous and allow for interpretation
and
7. Answer this: What questions about life or human experience are raised by the story?
8. Finally, identify one quote from the story that best captures the essence of the story.
LRJ -- Short Story Analysis #1
Based on your group discussion and your SIFT, you will complete a 2 or 3 page LRJ journal entry that has three parts: Experience, Interpretation, and Evaluation
Experience
Our experience of fiction concerns our feelings about the characters, our sense of involvement in the story's developing action, our pleasure or confusion in its language, and our joy or sorrow of its outcome. Did your feelings about any of the characters change during the course of your reading or afterward? In short, how did the story affect you -- and why? It is important to remember that readers respond to stories in different ways.
Interpretation
When we interpret a story we explain it to ourselves and try to make sense of it. An interpretation is an argument about the story's meaning as we understand it. It's our way of stating and supporting, with arguments based on analysis, what the story means, what it says or suggests. In short, what is the meaning of your short story according to your reading of it -- and why?
Evaluation
An evaluation is essentially a judgement, an opinion about a work formulated at itsWhen we evaluate a story we do two things. First, we assess its literary quality; we make a judgment about how good it is, how successfully it realizes its intentions, how effectively it pleases us. Second, we consider the values the story endorses--or refutes. We may confirm or deny the models of behavior illustrated in the story. What we should strive for in evaluating fiction is to understand the different kinds of values it presents, and to clarify our own attitudes, dispositions, and values in responding to them. Reflect on that.